Hey guys…remember me?! I promise there really are two humans (Chandra *that’s me* & Daniel *my hubs*) behind the face of Chandra’s Collection Photography…running every part of this small business and I promise that we are not robots! 😉

Gosh…I feel like I am SO behind on catching you guys up on what’s been going on in our lives when we’re not shooting weddings. When our busy season kicks in…(which was the beginning of February for us) it was grind time & there’s no slowing this train down, ya’ll! We hustle…and we hustle hard during our busy season. Because, let’s face it – there’s no other way to do it if we want to be able to not be piled under a bunch of work for the rest of the year lol  I’m the kind of person who has to get things DONE or I tend to think about it too much and then stress myself out thinking about all that we have to do :p So, if we take care of it asap for the most part so we have more time to enjoy life! And by gollie…that’s what we have been doing 🙂

We are starting to wind down for the month of June & July as we are entering our “slower season”! Hence, the summer in Texas is extremely hot for the most part & there aren’t too many people out there who like to get married in the heat of the summer…and we are honestly a bit thankful for that! (That reminds me…I will have to tell you guys the story from last summer when I almost passed out at one of our summer weddings from the scorching heat – ha!) We LOVE these slower weeks. This year we have close to 40 couples…and for us, we LOVE it! We love getting to meet so many amazing people. It keeps us very busy for the most part…so from going to a busy wedding season to having a few weeks off…we just don’t know what to do with ourselves! *Maybe I’ll learn to knit or something 🙂

Also, since becoming a husband + wife team this past January…our lives have become so much more awesome-er (is that a word?). I feel like it took us a couple of months to really find our rhythm when it comes to working together & teaching Daniel everything I know! Since that has happened, we are living in harmony (for the most part hehe) and Daniel has been such an exponential asset & blessing to this business…ya’ll don’t even know! Now, I don’t know how I ever did it without him. It’s crazy to think back to this time last year…& really, it’s for a totally different blog post which I plan on writing…but from Daniel getting diagnosed with cancer…to beating it…and now, to be working with me full-time for our business…it’s a God thing & none other than that! It has always been Him & always will be. I just sometimes pinch myself when I think about it all. Words just can’t ever really do my feelings justice…yannow? We are just so beyond blessed and never in a million years did I ever think that our lives would take that unexpected + dramatic turn but it eventually lead us right where we need to be! Again, it was all because of the big man upstairs who had bigger & better plans than we could have ever imagined! 🙂

But…getting to my point…promise! Since Daniel has joined me full-time…we had some tiny hiccups…a few trial & error type test runs that we had to work through to really find the sweet spot for our business so we could finally enjoy the fruits of our labor from the past few years. I honestly hate using that term because it sounds all bragg-y…but I PROMISE I’m not bragging or anything like that what-so-ever…but it’s TOUGH to build a business from scratch…so to finally see your work payoff…it’s like nothing other! A lot of people don’t see the late nights, stress for deadlines, the many ugly cries from feeling overwhelmed & overworked, the lonely days sitting at your desk in your home alone, cold chicken and broccoli from a tupperware container (okay, maybe that last part is only me lol) but you get my point. I truly never saw myself having structure in our business or actual FREE TIME. It wasn’t until we took the (scary) leap to become a hubby + wife team when we somewhat got parts of it figured out. Ya’ll…the thought of finally getting to enjoy a couple of days off a week was just a distant dream when I was doing this all by myself. I literally would work at least 100+ hours a week. That is sadly absolutely no exaggeration. But, it takes a LOT of hard work & trial & error to get to where you need to be! As your business is growing, it takes time to perfect your workflow and get a good system going that works for you & that helps you work smarter, not harder.

Anyways..gosh – have I really not even gotten to my point yet for this blog post? LOL I tend to get off topic, don’t I? I’ve been like that my whole life! :p With that being said…during the middle of our crazy busy wedding season…Daniel & I still have had time to ENJOY life! We have made time to do fun things & enjoy our free time. We recently bought a canoe & have been taking our puppies (Maggie & Charlie) to the river with us. We go fishing, jam out to some good ol’ tunes & just soak up the day! We ride our bikes out in the sunshine. We’ve been trying out new places around San Antonio…HECK – we have even picked up BOOKS to read! Whhhhaaaat?! I never thought I would have time to read. Which brings me to another blog post I tend on writing about a book I read which lead me to throw out half of our belongings…and it was amazing! If you’re scratching your head about that…don’t worry – it all makes complete sense when you hear the backstory 🙂 We’ve been checking out new parks in the city, took a trip to Los Angeles for fun & we also built our new website!!! (Which you can view right here) We haven’t officially made the big “announcement” for the website yet – but we will be doing a giveaway next week for it! So – stay tuned!

I wanted to share some random photos from my handy dandy i-phone from our most recent adventures. PS – if you’d like to keep up with our day-to-day activities, feel free to follow me on SnapChat. I post a lot of random stuff on there for example: our dogs…what we are doing…what we eat & etc! You know…all of those really exciting things people can’t live without knowing hehe I seriously never thought I’d be a fan of SnapChat – but it’s so much fun & now my favorite social media outlet. I find myself updating my friends on there rather than Facebook or Instagram. My username is: @HausOfChandy  —- PS – if you’re wondering about my username…I made my SnapChat thinking I wasn’t ever going to be posting business-y stuff..but then I did…and now I can’t change my username without making a new account. Darnit! So, feel free to add me & I would love to add you back & get a snippet into your lives.

Here are a few photos from some our most recent adventures. By the way…I completely suck when it comes to taking pictures when I’m having fun…so, here are just a few! Stay sweet! xoxo, Chandy & Daniel

Daniel & I got new bikes! We ride these things a few times a week and love it so much. We bought an awesome speaker that we take with us that I put in my basket & we just jammmmm out with our hair blowing in the wind! It’s one of our favorite things to do!

We’ve been loving heading out to the river + fishing with our pups in tow! They love the water from a distance (as you can see in the top right photo lol) They love nature & getting to explore!  

My sisters & I are triplets! Which means it’s a must to celebrate our birthday together every year. They make up my whole entire heart…they’re my best friends  & I just love them so!

We went to LA with my sissy & Raph to see the West Coast…and oh, boy…it did not dissapoint! We loved EVERY moment of it. Trae (my sister) just moved out there a couple of weeks ago and I plan on visiting her every few weeks – so I’m really excited about that 🙂

Isn’t he so handsome? I married UP! 🙂

We are just loving life & couldn’t be more excited for it! Thank you guys for following along – we appreciate your love & support! xoxo